Turkish Leaders to Act on US Troops

washingtonpost.com
Turkish Leaders to Act on U.S. Troops
The Associated Press
Monday, March 17, 2003; 3:42 PM

Turkey's top political and military leaders called on the government to take urgent action to allow in U.S. troops.

The announcement came at the end of a meeting that included the leaders of Turkey's new government, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, and top generals.

The United States has repeatedly called on Turkey's government to quickly resubmit to parliament a resolution that would let thousands of U.S. soldiers deploy at Turkish bases. Washington had sought Ankara's approval for the deployment in order that U.S. troops could open a northern front against Saddam Hussein's forces in an Iraq war.

"Our government will make the necessary evaluation urgently," presidential spokesman Tacan Ildem said.

An official statement released after the meeting referred to an earlier meeting of Turkey's top political and military leaders that called on parliament to take steps to let in foreign troops.

"A unanimous decision was reached ... that there is a need to move urgently according to the National Security advisory taken on Jan. 31, 2003," Ildem said.

The Turkish government has delayed resubmitting a new resolution and Turkey's new prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, earlier indicated that any new vote on the deployment would be at least another week away.